Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

There’s Good Worth Fighting For

This journey is long and hard. With so much darkness to wade through the light seems far out of reach. So why do we continue on? Why do we keep fighting for that far off day when we are free from abuse and our children are safe? Because it’s worth it. It’s so very worth it. The pain seems like it will never end and in some ways, that’s true. After you have healed from your own abuse the compassion and empathy that you will gain from your journey will enable you to help others on theirs and sometimes their pain reminds you of your pain (but it’s not the debilitating pain that you eventually gave up to Christ). That is the good that’s left in this world. –Nicole

FRODO: I can’t do this, Sam.

SAM: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened.

But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folks in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something.

FRODO: What are we holding on to, Sam?

SAM: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.